february!
on february 2nd, we started a month-long fast of fruits and vegetables for breakfast, and rice and beans for lunch and supper. the purpose of this fast is to pray for RMM's capital campaign to raise money for the renovations at the new 5th avenue training center, and to save as much money as possible from our food budget to donate to RMM.
we decided at the beginning of the month to take a break for two occasions: one was brittany's birthday, and the second was valentine's day. we went out to eat at applebee's for brittany's birthday and had a little party with birthday cake and a couple friends over afterwards. we hosted a valentine's day party on the 14th and had a group of friends over. i really enjoyed decorating and make appetizers and desserts for the party. after this past weekend (valentine's day weekend), we realized we weren't saving as much money as we wanted to because we were having to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, which aren't so cheap. so we decided to not buy anything else at all for the rest of the month, and instead decided to just eat what we already have here at the house. we also decided to accept left-over food from manna cafe and other places that offered food to us. i still make rice and beans for lunch and supper... until we run out, i guess. :) anyway, you can be praying with us for RMM and the capital campaign.
outreaches have been going well. i think aaron talked on here about kayla and i going to manna cafe on wednesdays and open shelter on thursdays, and brittany, cassandra and aaron going to blackburn recreational center on tuesdays and thursdays. on wednesdays, brittany and cassy have started babysitting for a 12-week Bible Study that the church we attend (Village Vineyard) is doing. this past wednesday was their first time, and they babysat 6 kids, but there will be more kids coming.
kayla and brittany were gone all of last week promoting REACH in kansas at hesston, bethel and tabor. they reported that it went well and there were a good number of interested young people, so that's exciting! we were glad to be re-united as a team when they got back.
this past week, we took our first VLI midterms. we had one midterm on interpreting scripture, and the other on the latter prophets I. it was a lot of information to remember, but i think overall, they both went well. kayla, aaron and brittany have been busy preparing and giving sermons in their preaching & teaching class, and cassy and i have both led service projects in our evangelism class. also for VLI, we are required to do leadership projects. brittany, kayla and i shopped for, put together and gave out 44 packed lunches to needy people, and that went really well. aaron and cassy gave out hot drinks at kroger, and are going to do the same at save-a-lot tomorrow night.
this weekend is our second VLI intensive. what are intensives like? they're uh... intense. :) the saturday class goes from 9 AM to 4:30 PM with a lunch break, and sunday from 2 PM to 7:30 PM. you can pray for that too, that we'll be able to stay focused.
thank you for your prayers and support!
-wendy for the staff